upping ram voltage past rated

S

StRiFeXD

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
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Hi,

I've been trying to get my E8400 stable at 4ghz. Using 9 x 444, i get random BSODs about once every 2 days for IRQ_equal_less than or something like that, and I assume that is related to memory. I'm currently using 4x1gb G.skill 1066 ram. I've tried raising the northbridge up to 1.5v, but it doesnt seem to be helping. The ram is rated at 2.1v.

Would it be dangerous to try upping the ram voltage to 2.2v? Also, is a 1.5v on the northbridge too high??

Thanks
 
The first thing I would do is isolate the problem. At this point you’re not sure what’s the cause of the problem. I would run memtest to find out if your memory is stable or not.

In my experience it does take more northbridge voltage to run 4 sticks of ram since it puts more load on the memory controller. I've also found that some ram modules will overheat when running 4 sticks at high speed/voltage since they are now so close together. I’ve experienced this with 4x1 ballistix tracers and 4x1 corsair dominators all running at 1066 2.1v. Sometimes more ram voltage may also be required. Depending on how hot the ram runs I would consider adding a fan for cooling.

You could also try running just two sticks to see if the problem is caused by running 4 sticks.

As for NB voltage just go up one notch from what the motherboard default is. You should be okay, but you could always monitor temps and add more airflow if you feel its necessary.

At what speed are you running the ram?
 
JohnleMVP said:
You could also try running just two sticks to see if the problem is caused by running 4 sticks.

As for NB voltage just go up one notch from what the motherboard default is. You should be okay, but you could always monitor temps and add more airflow if you feel its necessary.

At what speed are you running the ram?
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Good advice IMO. 1.5v sounds a bit high on the memory controller. Even on 680i boards, I did not need over about 1.45v to get 4 modules to 1066+.

You could try 2 modules as noted, and find your MAX OC with 2 modules. Then, you can pretty much rest assured that 4 modules will run at that speed or less.

Have you run Memtest yet?
 
ive run memtest and it came up with no errors. Also, the system runs stable at 3.6ghz with 4 sticks of ram, and also runs stable at 4ghz with only 2 sticks of ram. I'm thinking that the main problem is that there's just too much stress having 4x1GB sticks of ram.

The mobo btw is an asus p5q delux and at 4ghz, the ram is at 866mhz
 
3.6GHZ with 4 up is not bad. Try more like 1.3v to 1.4v on the memory controller. If you were running 1.5v, you may have been running to hot and it's possible it would be more stable with less voltage.
 
At 866 you could probably run the ram between 1.8v-2.0v. The ram is probably suppose to do 800mhz at 1.8 or 1.9v. What voltage is the ram running at when your doing 866 now?
 
ram voltage used to be 2.1V, but I just dropped it down to 2.0v @ 866mhz. Also moved NB down a notch to 1.48v, i know, still a bit high, but I'll see how it goes. :)
 
You can probably do the frequencies you have listed with 1.3v or so on the NB. 1.48v is WAY too high for what you are doing.
 
Can you temporarily put a fan over the memory and pass mem test? Also you could probably get away with less then 2.0v for the memory at 866mhz. It will help a bit with the overheating. Assuming its your memory that's overheating.
 
sorry, i meant that it may have been overheating from too much voltage. I've lowered the ram voltage down to 2.0 and NB down to 1.4. Played crysis for awhile and no problems. Running p95 rite now for about 2 hours so far and seems to be fine. I'll see how it goes. Thanks for all of your input :)
 
Based on what you have posted I would agree. I think your NB was getting too hot as the memory was not at an extreme voltage. If you care to take the time to do it, I am thinking you could drop both voltages a bit more, especially the RAM voltage.
 
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